Holiday Season Travel

October 3, 2005With four major airlines filing for bankruptcy in the past year and gas prices skyrocketing, many who hope to travel this holiday season are left to wonder if they’ll be able to. News 12 is on your side to find out if any flights will be reduced at the Augusta Regional Airport to compensate for it.

Trenton flies out six or seven times a year for his job and so far he hasn’t seen any problems.

“Everything’s been smooth,” said Trenton Watson, business traveler.

Fellow US Airways passenger Jacqueline Wilkins likes the convenience of traveling out of Augusta Regional.

“I’d rather take a short drive here than have to go to Atlanta or Columbia if at all possible,” Wilkins said.

And now that the holiday season is right around the corner, even more people will be depending on the airlines. But Delta, US Airways, United and Northwest have all filed for bankruptcy.

“I don’t really see the value of them pulling out flights here because they do have a strong ridership and don’t have a lot of flights so it’d really affect the community if they did,” Johnston said.

And if you thought ticket prices have been shooting up lately, you’re right.

“Ticket prices have gone up eight or nine times this year so that’s a significant number of increases. A lot of it of course is in response to fuel prices,” Johnston said.

But these frequent fliers say they’ll continue to fly by the seat of their pants.

“Just wing it and wait and see what happens,” Wilkins said.

“If they cancel anything I’ll just switch to another airline,” Wilkins said.

If fact since US Airways came out of bankruptcy on Tuesday and merged with America West, officials say it should provide more flights into the Augusta area. If you decide to fly out for the holidays this year, experts strongly recommend that you keep checking up with your airline to make sure nothing has changed.

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